LEAN DAYS OF PEACE.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 February 1921, Page 12

LEAN DAYS OF PEACE.

BRITAIN’S WORKLESS WINTER. London, Jan. 10. England’s army of unemployed is growing with astonishing rapidity. Each day brings its quota of factories and works closed down and thousands of workers thrown out of jobs. The shipbuilding and steel trades have been particularly hard hit. In the last few days a number of mines in Wales have closed down; in addition the textile and other industries in the North are working half-time. It is variously estimated that between 750,000 and 1.000,000 wageearners are out of Work, including 150,000 in London, which, with dependants, means that about 3,000/000 people are dependent on the relief funds and Government aid. No scheme has yet been put forward providing more than a temporarily palliative. It is generally recognised that the hardest days of winter are still ahead, and thus the climax is approaching. Th a e extremists have seized on the situation, and are feverishly working day and night. The Islington riot was the most serious incident resulting from their propaganda. The main body of unemployed, however, appear to be remarkably steady. The principal Labor leaders are urging conventional schemes for relief, such as public works and funds, and are condemning the agitators who desire direct action. In the meantime 'the situation is being dealt with locally. Some municipalities are finding temporary work, and others have struck a special employment rate until a permanent solution is found.

The workless continue to live from hand to mouth, and many families are starving and living in rags, sleeping on bare boards, huddled together in order .to keep warm. They have pawned their furniture, their utensils, and' oven their clothes to provide the bare necessities of life. Extraordinary scenes are witnessed, where men and women wait patiently in the rain for hours, struggling to draw pittances under the Unemployment Insurance Act. While a crowd of GOOD was drawing unemployment allowances at the Aberdeen Exchange yesterday several women fainted owing to the long wait without food. A Bolshevik orator, who urged the men to attack a restaurant was threatened with a ducking. and fled. The large number of unemployed women is only less serious in degree than the case of the unemployed men. There ate numerous vacancies in domestic service, but women are. apparently becoming more averse to housework, especially sleeping in. Forty-six thousand unemployed women were registered, at the labor exchanges in November, but 11,000 out of 28,000 vacant situations were not The Ministry for Labor is arranging a domestic training scheme for women desirous of learning, and thereby meeting the cases where applicants for situations admit their inability to wash a cup and saucer and boil